This small, unadorned church has long been considered the oldest church in the Swiss city of Lucerne. But since the installation of Jesus, who is equipped with artificial intelligence and can speak in 100 different languages, in Peter’s Chapel, it has become synonymous with all things new.
“This was really an experiment,” said Marko Schmidt, a theologian at the Church of Peterskapelle. “We wanted to see and understand how people would react to AI Jesus. What would they talk to him? Are they interested in talking to him? We is probably a pioneer in this field.”
The installation, known as Deus in Machina, was launched in August as the latest in a multi-year collaboration with local university labs on immersive reality.
After a project that experimented with virtual reality and augmented reality, the church decided the next step was to install avatars. Schmidt said: “We talked about what kind of avatar it would be. Would it be a theologian, a person, or a saint? But then we realized that the best person would be Jesus himself. .”
Short on space and seeking a place where people could have private conversations with avatars, the church replaced the priest and installed computers and cables in the confessional. After training the AI program on theology textbooks, visitors were asked to ask questions of a long-haired statue of Jesus projected through a grid screen. He responded in real time and provided answers generated by artificial intelligence.
People were advised not to disclose any personal information and to ensure that they were aware that they were engaging with Avatar at their own risk. “This is not a confession,” Schmidt said. “I’m not trying to imitate a confession.”
During the two-month experiment, more than 1,000 people, including Muslims and tourists from as far away as China and Vietnam, had the opportunity to interact with the avatars.
Data on the installation will be released next week, but Schmidt said feedback from more than 230 users showed that two-thirds of them found it to be a “spiritual experience.” “So you could say they had a religiously positive moment with this AI Jesus. For me, that was surprising.”
Others were more negative, with some telling the church it was impossible to talk to machines. A local reporter who tried the device once described its answers as “plain, repetitive, and oozing wisdom reminiscent of calendar clichés.”
Schmidt said the feedback suggested there was a wide variation in the avatars’ answers. “Sometimes I get the impression that he was a really, really good person and people were incredibly happy, surprised and inspired,” he said. “And there were also moments where he was somehow not as good, maybe more superficial.”
Schmidt said the experiment has also faced criticism from some within the church community, with Catholic colleagues protesting the use of the confessional and Protestant colleagues arguing that the facility would use images in this way. It seems that he was angry about this.
But what surprised Schmidt most was that the church took the risk believing that the AI would not give illegal, explicit answers or offer interpretations or spiritual advice that conflicted with the church’s teachings. That was it.
In hopes of mitigating this risk, the church tested Avatar on 30 people before installing it. Once released, we ensured that support was always close to our users.
“I never got the impression that he was saying anything strange,” Schmidt said. “But of course I can’t guarantee he won’t say something weird.”
Ultimately, this uncertainty led us to decide that Avatar was best left as an experiment. “I wouldn’t leave a Jesus like that forever. It would be too much of a responsibility.”
But he quickly mentioned the idea’s broader potential. “It’s a really easy, approachable tool that allows you to talk about religion, Christianity, and the Christian faith,” he says, turning it into a kind of multilingual spiritual guide that can answer religious questions. I thought it might be possible.
For him, this experiment, and the intense interest it generated, showed that people were looking for something beyond Scripture, sacraments, and ritual.
Schmidt said: “I think there’s a hunger to talk to Jesus. People want answers. They want words, they want to hear what he has to say. I think that’s a factor, too. And then, of course, curiosity. There’s also a heart. They want to know what this is.”
